Introduction

 

Welcome to my Conceptual Website! Here you can view all of my conceptual works over the past quarter. The purpose of this project was to be able to learn broad scheme of technology safely while doing it without restrictions of a rubric. Our creative imaginations came into play in this project and it was a great introduction to our first year at Freestyle. We are here to express authentic ideas and this conceptual project encompassed that concept fully.

 

We were required to write poems in English, and then capture images based on those poems in Design. This whole project roots from Freestyle students taking a "conceptual statement" out of a bag in English. My conceptual statement is "Exploring the feeling of relief through a long walk." That sentence structure is what blossomed into these projects. You will see my poems, my conceptual picture, and a mash up of all the music I have made this year. I learned a lot so far about Photoshop, Pro Tools, Dream Weaver, and Flash. This conceptual project has shown me how much I enjoy using my creative mind. Enjoy!

 

Poems

Here we have 3 of my 4 poems that I wrote this year so far. I also wrote a Haiku, shown in the next section. I discovered a new interest in writing poetry after composing these. Each poem has significant meaning to my life and I loved writing them. Click on each thumbnail to view some of my favorite works!

 

10 Line Poem
Ekphrastic Poem
Spoken Word Poem
Photo Haiku

On flash, I created a video where my photo haiku merged with my actual voice and with music. This process developed a picture into a full story. The use of flash brought my poem to life. What inspired me to write this poem in the way I did was that when I was at LMU, I saw this very old but beautiful statue. I was looking for an abstract but elegant way to shoot the photo and this figure really interested me. He seemed weathered, just as how many of us do. He looks like he has been walking for a very long time, which connected to my conceptual statement. In my poem I include "Humid Skies" and I wanted to capture that with including palm trees in my shot. "Worn shoes" is exemplified with how old and tired the man looks, and "Wounds heal, feelings die" is exemplified with the cold and dull demeanor of the statue. I tried to create even more of an emotional appeal with the use of black and white in the picture. In Pro Tools I recorded my own voice and then transferred it to Flash. Flash acted as a way to make this poem come to life.

 

 

Here is a screenshot of me making this project using an application called Adobe Flash. I designed the intro page to compliment the

photo for my haiku. Using Flash was difficult at first, but I caught on quickly.

Art

Here is a screenshot of me editing this photo in photoshop. Photoshop became one of my favorite programs I've ever used on a computer due to this project.

 

Artist Statement

 

Click above to view my unique art!
This picture really encompasses what I was aiming for when I had a vision of how I would portray my conceptual statement into an image. I chose bricks to signify relief because when we feel relief, we feel as if weight has been lifted off of our shoulders. Another reason I chose bricks was also because they are used for foundation in a house or other buildings. When we are going through something that provokes relief at the end, we feel as if the foundation of our life is crumbling down. I had the bricks falling in mid air to show how sometimes we feel like everything's just falling apart. I chose the background of this setting because it suits a long walk, but also because I feel grounded at Cuesta Park. I really enjoy the atmosphere there and I find it to be a pure environment. Long walks are usually to create some sort of release, and I find myself easily able to do that at this setting. I chose to shoot in the brightest hour of the day and on a sunny day for multiple reasons. I personally love the sunshine, because it gives me happiness and hope. The notion that the sun is going to rise the next day no matter what happens in my life is why I chose to have this shot be in the bright daylight. The angle of the shot was strategically chosen to have the bricks be shown higher in the air. I was sitting down on the grass during this shot, and the bricks were falling above a hill to create a greater falling distance for the shot. I love how the bricks ended up in the shot because it looks as if one brick is looking down upon the other, like it is negatively affecting it. Many times when we feel like we are falling in life, there is someone or something that keeps pushing us down. This concept directed me to use certain photoshopping techniques.

I learned how to greatly enhance my ability to use the cropping tool, the pen tool, apply contrast and fix exposure/brightness, and how to apply filters to add depth to my photo. Learning these things really guided me in creating my final product because I had a lot of extra space in my picture that I needed to crop out to fully capture the importance of the bricks and the setting around them. The adjustment of brightness, exposure, and contrast helped me tremendously with the emotional setting of the picture. It added finesse to the image and it also helped me create a setting that I precisely wanted, not just a setting that I was mostly content with. The pen tool and the filters are responsible for fully topping off my picture, and for adding depth to the shot as a whole. The pen tool allowed me to precisely select the brick on the bottom, and the knowledge of the filters allowed me to illustrate a particular concept in my picture. I specifically edited the bricks and the contrast of the setting to add stress upon the importance of the falling bricks and also to enhance the emotional aspect of my picture.

My photo portrays my concept statement from English on many different levels. The gold brick below the red brick falling exemplifies how no matter how much someone thinks their life is crumbling, they are still important and still valuable. The brick above the gold brick is looking down upon it, and that means a lot to me and to my concept statement. No matter how much someone may doubt you, or negatively affect you, you can still shine and still be the wanted “gold brick”. Relief is universally described as weight off someone's shoulders and I wanted to conceptually portray this in my photo without being too on the surface. A long walk is something that usually plays in the healing process of something, and I wanted to show that through a calm park and a clear day. There are minimal amounts of clouds in the sky, showing that everything will be okay. The bricks are not angrily falling, but just steadily and smoothly falling. I wanted to create that feel to exemplify relief and also the serenity of a long walk. I really enjoyed exploring this concept statement with so many different levels of analysis.

Music

Here is a screenshot of me making this audio track. This track is special to me because it is a mashup of all my musical works that I have created this year. I have always loved listening to music and before Freestyle I wished I could make music. Now, making music is one of my favorite things to do at Freestyle and I hope to continue to have a great time doing things like this. I chose to use xpand!2 for an electronic music feel, and I used boom and the mini grand for designing beats. The use of fades was crucial for me because there are many different transitions that I needed to create. I hope you enjoy my song, please press play at the audio track below this screenshot. Thanks!